Atkins has had a new fire chief since the first of the month, but it's not someone burning to make any improvements.

If the pumper truck isn't broke, you don't need to fix it. Although Tony Reel said Friday night the dcpartment's volunteer firefighters are looking toward purchasing a new pumper truck during the coming months.

Reel replaced Steve Duvall as chief, the first change of command at the fire department in three years. Duvall, who will remain a firefighter with the department, was appointed chief by Mayor Jerry Don Barrett in February 2004.

"Stevie resigned to concentrate on his farming responsibilities more," Barrett said. "The fire chief is appointed by the mayor, while the first assistant chief was voted by firefighters. I felt Tony knew more about it [being department chief] than anybody else, so I appointed him chief."

Reel, who became a firefighter in 1992, said the department elected Alex Darter as assistant chief.

"The fire department is running real smooth," Reel said. "We've got a great group of young men who are real energetic and are willing to do anything you ask them. That means a lot when you've got firefighters like that. They're the reason our ISO is at 3 right now.There probably isn't two dozen volunteer fire departments in the country with a Class 3 ISO rating. We were real fortunate. It took a lot of hard work."

The ISO rating is Atkins' previous ISO rating was a 7. It's 3.1 for residents outside the city limits, or outside a 5-mile radius of the fire station.

"Things have been running smooth the past couple of years. We've made some great leaps in the past couple of years. We're just going to strive to continue to improve where we can."